If you asked us who on the New York Times masthead was most likely to be well-schooled in the art of air shredding, we would would have guessed columnist Nick Kristof. (Dude just has something metal about him.) Wrong!

ATL: Performer Juris Rocktor (Georgetown law student Mike Sacks) described "airness" to ESPN as being "like Justice Potter Stewart's quote about obscenity - you know it when you see it." Can you offer a better description?

LIPTAK: I must respectfully dissent from that view. I simply apply the standard of airness, as understood at the founding of the rock era, to the performances presented. I leave my policy preferences, personal history and musical taste outside the doors of the 9:30 Club, and I just call air balls and air strikes.